The Old Man and the Sea and "A Days Wait", both by Earnest Hemingway, have many similarities. These stories both have the theme of manliness, masculine pride. They also create a sense of sadness since their moods involve death. In addition, the main characters have the trait of obsessing about the conflict of the book. The Old Man and the Sea and "A Days Wait" have numerous similarities.

One way that The Old Man and the Sea and "A Days Wait" are similar is they both emphasize the theme of manliness. In The Old Man and the Sea, on page 126 it says, " ‘You must get well fast for there is much that I can learn and you can teach me everything. How much did you suffer?’ ‘Plenty,’ the old man said.” This shows that the old man does not want to go into detail and shows no emotion about his time at sea. He keeps his answer short and continues with life, putting his brutal time at see behind him. Similarly, in “A Days Wait”, it says on page four, “ ‘Oh’ he said. But his gaze at the foot of the bed relaxed slowly. The hold over himself relaxed too, finally, and the next day it was very slack...” This shows that the boy keeps his emotions to himself, like the old man. They do not want to indicate any happiness or detail. They want to look tough, like a man; in the way they manipulate their life. The Old Man and the Sea and "A Days Wait" are similar because they both stress the theme of masculine pride.

A second way that The Old Man and the Sea and "A Days Wait" are similar is their moods both include the thought of death. In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago is fighting and is either going to kill the fish or be killed while trying. The fish tows him for two days in a small rowboat, with nothing to eat and little fresh water. On page 119 it says, “He spat into the ocean and said, ‘Eat that, galanos. And make a dream you’ve just killed a man. He knew he was beaten now and without remedy…” This implies that Santiago thought he was going to die. Similarly, Schatz in “A Days Wait” believes that he will die because of a misunderstanding of temperatures. In “A Days Wait” on page three Schatz says, “ ‘About what time do you think I’m going to die?’ ” This implies that the innocent nine year-old with a fever thought he was going to die. In both, The Old Man and the Sea and “A Days Wait”, the main characters have the thought of death on their mind. The thought of dying creates a saddening effect on the story. Since the mood of both stories involved death, they are similar in yet another way.

A final way that The Old Man and the Sea and "A Days Wait" are similar is that the main characters are both obsessed with the conflict of the story. On pages eighty-six and eighty-seven of The Old Man and the Sea Santiago says, “ ‘He is making the far part of his circle now,’… I must hold him all I can, he thought. The strain will shorten his circle each time. Perhaps in an hour I will see him. Now I must convince him then I must kill him.” Santiago has laid all of his focus on catching this fish. He will not be distracted by anything else. Similarly, in “A Days Wait” Schatz is completely focused on the thought of dying. His father says, “I went up to him and found him in exactly the position I left him, white faced, but with the tops of his cheeks flushed by the fever, starting still, as he had stared, at the foot of the bed.” Schatz’s big problem is dying. He waits all day, not sleeping, reading, or talking to his family, to die. All he does throughout the day is stare at the foot of the bed waiting to die. The Old Man and the Sea and "A Days Wait" are again similar because they both have the main character obsessed with the conflict of the story.

Overall, The Old Man and the Sea and "A Days Wait" are similar in more than one way. The themes of these stories are both focused around manliness and masculine pride. These two stories create a sense of sadness with the mood, the thought of death. Clearly, Santiago and Schatz are also obsessed with the conflict that they have to overcome. As shown, The Old Man and the Sea and "A Days Wait" are extremely similar when compared.